A Queens doctor is getting a new lease on life -- again, thanks to two important men in his life.

“I’m feeling good. I feel like there is a new life inside of me. Like a renewed source of energy inside of me,” said Dr. Philippe Douyon, in a video recorded last month, just a few hours after a life-saving kidney transplant. Douyon underwent surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

“Everybody that sees me is just saying how they just see a smile on my face. And that’s because new kidney, new beginnings,” said Douyon, in the video diary.

We first introduced you to Douyon when he was awaiting surgery back in March. He was on dialysis at the time.

“Dialysis is when they essentially do the job the kidneys are not doing so well anymore,” said Douyon.

Douyon was diagnosed with kidney disease at 18. He underwent his first kidney transplant at 28 — just days after graduating from medical school. His dad was his living donor.

Three years ago, his kidney function started to decline. He was in the process of getting a second transplant when the pandemic hit.

When Douyon contracted COVID-19 in January, his surgery was pushed back again.  But almost fourteen years to the day after his first transplant, he was cleared to go under the knife.

This time, his cousin Scott was his donor.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, about one in three kidney transplants comes from a living donor like Douyon's but nearly 100,000 people are on the list awaiting a kidney right now. The median wait time for a first kidney transplant is more than three years and 13 people on average die each day awaiting a kidney.

“It’s given me a lot of patience because I know that this is a process. Ideally, you’d like to think that you get the transplant and everything is great. But it’s a process afterwards,” said Douyon.  

It’s been almost a month since his surgery. Douyon is recovering at his home in Queens, he says he’s feeling stronger everyday.

But mostly he’s thankful for the two men who have given him the gift of life.

“You’re not just impacting that one life, it’s everybody else they’re going to impact in their life, and that’s going to be for decades to come. So when I think about the last 14 years, just the patients that I’ve helped, that’s thousands of people that I helped all because of my dad. This time around, it’s going to be thousands more that I’ll be able to help,” said Douyon.